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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Howlett1788360702|title= James DeanCharles, The Alternative Prince: Rebel LifeAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|summary= James Dean was in a sense to the 1950s what Sid Vicious was to the 1970s – the ultimate For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''live fastCharles, die youngThe Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince' characters opinions, although as beliefs and aims against the star background of three classic movies the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the era he achieved rather more in reputation of a man who is proud of his short life than the hapless punk icon ever did in refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to hisambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859655342</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sean Cunningham1739805100|title=Prince ArthurLoving the Enemy: The Tudor King Who Never WasBuilding bridges in a time of war|author=Andrew March

|summary= Prince Arthur was ''Loving the eldest son Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of Henry VII. Had he lived longerauthor Andrew March's grandparents, there might have been no Henry VIII, thus paving who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of the way for a very large counterfactual 'what if' Nazi regime in British historythe 1930s. The name ArthurFred, that a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the mythical King several centuries earlier, had great expectations attached, never growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the time. Fred's attempts to be fulfilledseparate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445647664</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsWill Brooker|title=The Beauty of Her Age: A Tale of Sex, Scandal and Money in Victorian EnglandTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=4.5

|summary= Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The name meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of Yolande Stephens her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (nee Duvernay) is not that wellcertainly a get-known in up never commonly worn at the annals author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of Victorian Englandcultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, but behind it lies an enthralling ragsdown the rabbit-to-riches sagahole that is Jewell's diverse output. How did Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a young girl born into poverty year in Paris become one the published author's life, working to make a success of the most celebrated ballerinas of her time in Englandlatest title, and after that one of struggling with the richest women next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the country, with a fortune on her death which rivalled that of Queen Victoria?result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445653206</amazonuk>1529136024

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter RexMartha Leigh|title=William Invisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary= Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the Conqueror: The Bastard complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of Normandylife. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|isbn=1800460384}}{{Frontpage|author=Polly Barton|title=Fifty Sounds

|genre=History Politics and Society|summary= The basic facts of William Where do I start? I's life are inevitably as clouded as those surrounding the Norman conquestcould start with where Barton herself starts, with the events and politics which led up to it, question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the aftermathworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. As Peter Rex makes clear in his introductionI may get there later this year, any surviving sources are inevitably very incompletebut I am not hopeful. MoreoverAnd like Barton, I don't know the writing answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the history question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|isbn=1913097501}}{{Frontpage|author=Frederic Gros|title=A Philosophy of Walking|rating=5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= I confess I picked this one up from the eleventh century requires library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the historian pages I have marked and return to attempt its varying wisdom when I need to provide motives and explanations for events that are only sketchily described at best. Some books draw you in slowly. This one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445660172</amazonuk>1781688370

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Teresa ColeSharon Blackie|title= Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of AgincourtIf Women Rose Rooted|rating= 4.5

|summary= Henry V is remembered as one of England's greatest warrior kings, not least as I normally say that you can tell how much a result of his immortalisation in the play book means to me by Shakespeare (as well as by two film versions how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the drama)one I've borrowed. Ironically he was one of several greatI want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-grandchildren of Edward III, changing' – although it is definitely the first two and as he was considered relatively unimportant at the only time of his birth, exactly when he arrived in will tell about the world was not recorded third – but clichés exist for a reason and two different dates have been given. It was the deposition of his fatherI's childless cousin Richard II in 1399 which placed him directly in the line of successionm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445655411</amazonuk>1912836017

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Peter Ackroyd0241446732|title= Alfred HitchcockOur House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating= 45|genre= BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= Peter Ackroyd has established a reputation for himself in recent years as The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the master parenting of the pithy biographytheir two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, particularly but not exclusively of those struggled with a strong London connectionwhat was happening. J.M.W. TurnerIn such circumstances, Edgar Allan Poeit's natural to seek a solution close to home, Wilkie Collins and Charlie Chaplin are among those who have come under his scrutiny, and now he looks at the noted film director and producerbut eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet'Master of Suspense'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099287668</amazonuk> If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom Bower0648684806|title=Broken VowsClara Colby: Tony Blair The Tragedy of PowerInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=In May 1997 we went to vote gleefully, sure that there The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was going probably determined when her family emigrated to be a change from the tired, sleaze-ridden Conservative government we'd been sufferingUSA. The Blairs' entry into Downing Street At the following day time she was just three- through crowds of wellyears-wishers - was like a breath old but because of fresh air some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and (perhaps fortunately) it would be years before I discovered three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that the 'well wishers' had been bussed she received a good education, both in for the eventand out of school. Looking back now it seems that our hopes for what She was the only child in the 'New Labour' government could achieve were unreasonably high household and there's a special place in hell reserved for those who disappoint us in this wayher childhood was glorious. I've often wondered quite how history will see Blair: Afghanistan By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and Iraq life was hard, as well as his failure Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to deal with Gordon Brown join the family. Clara would always sour his premiership only know her mother for a few months: she was married for mefifteen years, had ten pregnancies, but to what extent could his achievements such as seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the Good Friday Agreementeldest girl, the minimum wage a heavy burden would fall on Clara and higher welfare payments be balanced against his failures?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571314201</amazonuk>Wisconsin was a rude awakening.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Popham 1789017977|title=The Lady Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Ronnie Williams was the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and BurmaEthel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's Struggle for Freedombirthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while, the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.}}{{Frontpage|author=Patti Smith|title=Year of the Monkey|rating=4.5

|summary=On 13 November 2010the coast of Santa Cruz, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after spending 15 Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the previous 21 years as monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a prisoner of Burmastranger's military junta. Political reforms soon followedwords, culminating with Suu (as she prefers to be known) being elected to parliament. The West rejoiced; leaders''Anything is possible: after all, business men, and tourists poured in; and Suu entered it's the pantheon year of modern-day political heroesthe monkey''. Burma was a burgeoning democracyAs Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, and Suu was she reflects on a saint. In reality, as Peter Popham argues year that brings huge shifts in 'The Lady her life - loss and the Generals'ageing are faced head-on, as it the situation was far more complexshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846043719</amazonuk>1526614758

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Aubrey1912242052|title= Brief LivesO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating= 43|genre= BiographyArt|summary= John Aubrey was ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a modest manminer, an antiquarian and the inventor of modern biography. His lives of the prominent figures of his generation include Shakespearequarryman, Miltonshepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and Sir Walter Raleighadventure. Funny His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, illuminating and full of historical details, they have been plundered by historians for centuries. Here Aubrey's biographical writings are collectedits literary consequences, painting a series of unforgettable portraits changed our view of the characters of his day – all more alive and kicking than in a conventional history bookworld''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784870331</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ruth ScurrGraff_Find|title= John Aubrey: My Own LifeFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating= 43.5|genre= BiographyAutobiography|summary=John Aubrey, the seventeenth-century antiquary, writer and archaeologist, occupies When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a peculiar, even unique place in English literature. When he diedplastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, the work for which he is most famous, didn'Brief Lives', was a disorganised collection t take much notice of manuscripts which remained unpublished for over a centuryit. Only in At the last hundred years or so has be become more widely recognised as an interesting character and perceptive commentator on societyage of 24, scholarship and on his contemporaries during Graff didn't realise the gravity of the post-restoration erapages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490633</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amy Licence1789016304|title= Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Given the current resurgence in popularity of biographies dealing with the Yorkists, the time is right for an account of the marriage of King Edward IV War and Elizabeth Woodville, a union that proved so divisive in the era of York vs Lancaster. With several of the great nobility declaring allegiance to one side and then another in turn during the Wars of the Roses, it was a divisive era to start with. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445636786</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Alison Weir|title= The Lost Tudor PrincessLove: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary=Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, was one of the more shadowy, lesser known personalities among the Tudor royal family. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII's sister Margaret, by her second marriage to Archibald Douglas, Earl testament of Angusanguish, endurance and like so many others who were closely related to King Henry VIII and his children, she led what was at times quite a precarious life devotion in that she was on occasion suspected of treasonable activities, and also experienced no little personal tragedy|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546469</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewoccupied Amsterdam|author=Peggy Caravantes|title=Marooned in the ArcticMelanie Martin

|summary=Misogynists are manmade. And if anyone was Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in a position to hate men occupied Amsterdam during World War II and the lot they put on their shoulders, it was Ava Blackjack. Her surname spoke of an abusive man entranced by what she had a son bydiscovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but it was then realised that her time with four other men that made for one of the last centuryown family's more remarkable storieswere equally fascinating. An Inuit nativeA hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but one brought up only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a city and country with English lessons, she was invited on an excursion alongside many other 'Eskimo' and four intrepid Westerners, liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the uninhabited Wrangel Island, perched off Germans might reach the northern Siberian coast. They city were there just to stick a flag in it and call it British, even if convinced that they were pretty much fully American and Canadianwould soon be pushed back, and that the chap whose ideas these all were bore an Icelandic name; she was along Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to provide native expertise, especially waterproof fur clothing. And escalate in the way that was it – none of her kin joined herdid, leaving her in one tent and four men in another, in one of but initial protests melted away as the worldorganisers became more circumspect. It's most remote and inhospitable placesan atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. And that was just the start of her worries…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1613730985</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Robert Douglas-Fairhurst1786893452|title=The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Think of iconic novels, and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" will be near the top of your list. From the rabbit hole to the Mad Hatter's tea party and the Queen's cricket ground, Lewis Carroll's imagination has established itself firmly in Western cultural heritage: with a parade of characters ranging from the weird to the wonderful and a constant play with logic and language, Carroll's masterpiece has earned its place among classics.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959403X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewUngrateful Refugee|author=Jonny Steinberg|title=Man of Good HopeDina Nayeri|rating=4.5

|summary=''A Man of Good Hope'' is the remarkable biography of Asad Abdullahi. It tells the story of a Somalian boy abandoned at eight years of age and his journey to adulthood. It is also a testament to the human spirit and its capacity to survive. Epic Here in its scope it covers a journey that stretches the length of the continent of Africa. In West, we see news reports about immigrants on a time when the mass migration of people has never beenregular basis – some media welcoming them, more in focus it tells the story some scaremongering about them. But all of what it really means to be a refugee those stories are written by someone who has experienced it all his life. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099563770</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Johnny Rogan|title= Ray Davies: A Complicated Life|rating= 5|genre= Entertainment|summary= Most of Britain's most popular and successful songwriters of the last 150 years, from Gilbert and Sullivan and Lennon and McCartney, to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and Barryjournalists – almost always western, Robin and Maurice Gibbalmost always, have been partnerships. The only solo writer in no matter how deep the same league is Ray Daviesinvestigative journalism they carry out, front man of The Kinks from their formation in 1963 outsiders to their final performance in 1994. While this mighty tome is partly an account of the group's tortuous thirty-year history, it is also first world and foremost, as the title says, a biography of Davies himselfsituations that refugees find themselves in. Through interviews with the Davies brothers, Ray and his younger brother Dave, the groupIt's guitarist and only other constant member of rare that we find out the journeys from the line-up, other group members, managers, friends refugees themselves – and associates, Rogan has given us as complete a book of the man as we are ever likely to get.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554089</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kate Grenville|title= One Life: My Mother's Story|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary= This memoir could so easily have become this is a sentimental tribute to Grenville's mother. But somehow, the author has managed rare opportunity to make it so much more than do that. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782116877</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robert Crawford|title= Young Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary= Did T.S. Eliot like ice-cream? I should really be asking, of course, whether ''Tom'' liked ice-cream, since Robert Crawford in his marvellous biography insists on bringing us into intimate and personal contact with this so closed intelligent, powerful and impersonal of poets. For many of us, to wonder what this literary giant's favourite flavour of icemoving work by Dina Nayeri -cream someone who was seems born in the middle of a somehow unsuitable curiosity – irreverent or frivolous even – as if to think about his taste for such ordinary pleasures would distract from the appreciation for his very momentous achievements revolution in poetry. It is, howeverIran, Crawford's aim fleeing to make these kinds of commonplace aspects of T.S. Eliot's life and personality much more familiar to us, America as he draws our attention to the poet's childhood years and youtha ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955495X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David P Colley0857058320|title=Seeing Lord Of All the War: The Stories Behind the Famous Photographs from World War IIDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=As anybody could tell, a still photograph is only part of ''Lord Of All the truth, if that. There Dead'' is a beforehand we donjourney to uncover the author't see, s lost ancestor's life and an after we can only fantasise about unless we know otherwisedeath. Take Cercas is searching for the famous image of wartime grunts pushing the flag pole upright – an icon of meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War in the Pacific for the US soldiers. Manuel Mena, and the films made about Iwo Jima since. But other images of the war have been just as long-lastingCercas' great uncle, and is the people in figure who looms large over the photos donbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco't always have movies made s forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of their full story arc. This this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a collection of hero whilst having fought for the images, and a corrective to that narrative lack, giving much more of a full biography with which to pay tributewrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611687268</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marcel Ruijters and Laura Watkinson (translator)1788037812|title=HieronymusThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=45|genre=Graphic NovelsBiography|summary=This is Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a book crime remained in place for those who find it amusing that a biography of someone who has been dead 500 82 years is called 'unauthorised'. This is a book where But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the detail is in nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the devil – people pissing in heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the street; margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the locals baiting blind people armed with cudgels European Continent, but barely talked about in a pit with a pigthe UK, often failing so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to whack the beast scientific understanding of homosexuality, and hitting their colleagues by mistake; farting demons visiting beginning the sleeper. This is a book struggle for those who don't mind a spot of ribaldryrecognition and equality, an affront leading to religious piety or suchlike the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in their graphic novels. Whether or not this is a book for those seeking a biography of Hieronymus Bosch remains to be seen1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662466</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea WulfBuckland_Zoo|title=The Invention of NatureMan Who Ate the Zoo: The Adventures of Alexander von HumboldtFrank Buckland, the Lost Hero forgotten hero of Sciencenatural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=Alexander von Humboldt was born As a conservationist in Berlin in 1769Victorian England before the term existed, the younger brother Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of Wilhelm von Humboldt who would become a Prussian minister but who is perhaps better remembered as a philosopher and linguisthis time. The family was well-to-do and both brothers benefitted from an excellent educationSurgeon, although they lacked affection from their emotionally-distant widowed mothernaturalist, but it was a legacy from her which would fund Alexander's first explorations. His first travels would be in Europe where he met veterinarian and was influenced by people such as Joseph Bankseccentric sums him up perfectly, President of the Royal Society, who had travelled and any biographer is immediately presented with Thomas Cook. But it was his travels in Latin America which would lay the foundations for his life's worka colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548982</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen ParkerWilliams_Captain|title= Bertolt Brecht - A Literary Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Lifeand Times|author=Ivor George Williams|rating= 3.54|genre= Biography|summary= Drawing on letters, diaries, and unpublished material, Stephen In March 1829 Ann Parker offers a rich and detailed account married Captain J A Edwards of Brecht's life and work, and paints a new picture the 17th Regiment of one of the twentieth century's most controversial cultural icons – a man whose plays are performed more in Germany than Shakespeare'sFoot. Examining Brecht's beginnings He was in Bavaria, through command of the First World War troops and onto the beginnings of convicts on board a career. Thenship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Brecht's journey through Weimar Germany where he became a political artist, struggling with the fascists who would eventually drive Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him . He was not destined to exile in Denmarklive a long life, and onto life in dying suddenly at the US – suspected age of being a Soviet agent34 at Bangalore, before the eventual return leaving his widow to Germany, and a later life plagued with illnessraise their two young sons. This is a fascinating book about the man, Edwards' death left his work, and the climates widow in which he wrote and influenced his worka difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, as well as providing insights into but she was also responsible for the thought processes, health, and women convicts who filled worked the world of Brechtland. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1474240003</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dominic PearcePeacock_mountain|title= Henrietta Maria|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=Into The phrase 'tragic Queen' is an often overused oneMountain, but the French princess who became the second Stuart Queen Consort A Life of Britain surely has as strong a claim as any to the title. In British history she was unique in that she not only lived to see her husband defeated in civil war, but also sentenced to death and in effect judicially murdered.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445645475</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNan Shepherd|author=Philip Weinstein|title=Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of RageCharlotte Peacock|rating=34.5

|summary=''Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage'' makes frequent mention of Franzen's attendance at Swathmore College in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1977 and where the author, Philip Weinstein was, until last year Professor of English. An earlier graduate, the novelist James A. Michner left his entire estate of some 10 million dollars Mostly we choose what books to the college and the proceeds from his works, including the one on which ''South Pacific'' was founded. It was at Swarthmore that Franzen met his wife, where she had been a gifted classmate. Weinstein, the author who teaches read because there, has personally known Franzen for over two decades and the latter has given him a personal interview and been otherwise in contact with him for some considerable is so little time. If this all seems just a little blurred in its boundaries, not to say incestuous, then that might not matter. However, Franzen's work closely concern itself with shame, guilt, incest, rage and humiliation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1501307177</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Adam Sisman|title= John le Carre: The Biography|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary=Some twenty years ago David Cornwell, better known as novelist John le Carré, told a couple of would-be writers about him that he did not believe in 'authorised' biographies or critiques. Adam Sisman, who has since then been granted exclusive access to the man and his private archive, so many books… I can therefore consider himself a lucky man.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408827921</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Catherine Hewitt|title= The Mistress of Paris|rating= 4|genre= Biography|summary= Born into poverty, no-one could have guessed that the girl who would one day be known as Valtesse de la Bigne would have achieved greatness. This is understand the tale of her rise to wealth and power – starting in a dress shop as a thirteen year oldapproach, but fast becoming a courtesan who would be fought over I also think we sell ourselves short by some of the greatest men of her time. A woman who kept an air of mystery about many details of her life, Catherine Hewitt nevertheless paints an incredible story around the gapsit, and this proves to be both a full and intriguing biography, and a fascinating portrait of we sell the time period. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848319266</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Despina Stratigakos|title=Hitler at Home|rating=5|genre=History|summary=''Please do not make Hitler look goodmyriad lesser-known authors short as well.'' Words to live by that the author of this volume received from her motherSo while, a Kefalonian who knew Nazi abuse when she saw it. Rest assured that the book does not do thatlike most other people I have my favourite genres, but it certainly provides a much fresher, more eloquent and interesting look at certain aspects of his lifefavoured authors, and introduces us to someone else from the Nazi times – Gerdy Troost, who might as well be summarised as Hitler's interior designer. In picking apart the entire life of Troostwhile, like most other people I read the nature of her work reviews and how the buildings and décor she surrounded Hitler in became a part of his propagandafollow up on what appeals, we get I also have a refreshingly new yet authoritative book, that for those with an interest in this side of our recent history will easily be considered one of, if not the, best book of the year. The person who does come out with the laurels worn highest is our authorthird-string to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>030018381X</amazonuk>